Monday, March 14, 2016

The United Nations Human Rights Council has tapped a British professor, who has accused Israel of apartheid and compared it to the Islamic State, to be its investigator into human rights violations in the Palestinian territories, a UN watchdog group reported Thursday.

A committee charged with reviewing candidates to replace Makarim Wibisono, who will leave the position at the end of March, has recommended Penny Green — a professor of law and globalization at Queen Mary University of London — as its first choice for the role.

In response, UN Watch said it had submitted a report to the UNHRC against the “radical” Green’s appointment, citing her apparent bias against Israel.

The watchdog first spoke out against the position itself, charging that “while the title of the mandate implies that the special rapporteur monitors ‘the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories,’ this is false. In fact, the text of the mandate… makes clear that the rapporteur is charged with investigating only ‘Israel’s violations.'”

Not only does the rapporteur’s mandate not cover Palestinian actions against Israelis, it also ignores rights violations by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas against other Palestinians, the report said.

Meanwhile, a look at the Twitter feed of the top candidate for the post shows her to be vehemently anti-Israel. Green, UN Watch said, “accuses Israel of ‘criminal state practices,’ ‘ethnic cleansing,’ and ‘apartheid.'” She has lamented that the US and UK haven’t yet started “bombing Israel for its massacres,” as they have the Islamic State.She also supports the total boycott of Israel and has posted tweets in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.